


Superstition

by orphan_account



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-06-07 07:13:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15213914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Blake is haunted, maybe.





	Superstition

_A ghost,_ you think, the first time you see her.

She’s there and then she isn’t; all in white, nose buried in a textbook at the other end of the food court. Yang’s next to you, loud, adding wild embellishments to some ridiculous story of Nora’s, but for a moment everything seems far away. You can hear your breath and your blood, you can hear her finger running across the page. You can’t hear Yang, though, until she smacks you in the side of the head while she waves her arms excitedly. Everything comes back, but the ghost is gone. You blink down at your sandwich.

* * *

The second time — at night, of course.

You’re meandering, shuffling through an alley on the way back from homework at Sun’s place, listening to the sounds of locusts and thinking about nothing. You have time before your parents start to worry, so you turn down the path that leads under the bridge. The moon is bright, and the bridge casts a long shadow. You step into it just as someone else steps out.

_The ghost,_ you think. All in white, she hurries past you, eyes lowered. You stop and turn, open your mouth to speak. She’s gone.

* * *

A third time, then — when?

You look across the cafeteria; you take the long way home. You don’t see anything, but ghosts don’t always choose to show themselves. You can be patient. You help Ruby write a paper, go for movie nights with Velvet, you read an excellent novella about lady pirates. You wait. The nights get short, fall comes and goes. 

Your grandma knows about ghosts, about exorcisms and proper burials and what to do for the dead to make sure they stay on the other side, where they belong. You’ve heard the stories a hundred times over; you know how to make a ghost stay away. But how to make one come back? You try to ask her, once, but the sharp look in her eyes makes you afraid. You keep your head down.

You don’t stop thinking, though. Ghosts want something, you consider, so you just need to learn what she wants. 

What does she want?

* * *

 A third time, a third time.

You enlist some help. Yang says Ouija board, Nora wants a séance. Pyrrha’s sure she isn’t a ghost at all, just a girl who keeps to herself.

You don’t see why she can’t be both.

That day, Ren finds you. He appears suddenly, on your walk home, mysterious as ever. He tells you new stories, about payments and passages, sacrifice and loss. He tells you how to call the dead. 

It’s almost too easy. You slip out after your parents go to sleep. You walk. You whistle after dark, alone but not lonely. The tune isn’t anything, you’re pretty sure, so you’re surprised to hear it echoed back at you after a time. _The girl,_ you think, but you don’t stop whistling. Her voice is beautiful. You turn a street corner and there she is, half in moonlight, half in shadow.

She meets your eyes and you fall silent.

“What do you want?” you ask. 

You know the answer.

**Author's Note:**

> shrug emoji


End file.
